As we stop to take inventory, there is much to be thankful for. For my part - in no particular order . . .
I am thankful for a new granddaughter who was born this week, and for the health of her mother. Years ago, we couldn't take child bearing for granted, and it still comes with its fair share of risks in modern times.
I am thankful for the men and women who have and continue to defend our country. We may not have a perfect system, but there are other countries where the simple freedoms we take for granted are not available.
I am thankful for a kind and loving husband. There are days I'd like to push him against a wall and get in his face (okay, I'd have to get on a stool to do that), but I couldn't ask for a gentler giant.
I am thankful for my sisters and my parents and my children, all of whom are still a part of my life.
I am thankful for my blonde assistant, who loudly purrs her contentment with how her life turned out.
I'm thankful for the outlet of writing, and for the fans who make it worth my while. You make me want to keep going, and as I continue to hone my skills, I become more comfortable with my own "voice."
I'm thankful for food on the table.
I'm thankful for friends, old and new- near and far, who continue to be a part of my life.
I'm thankful for my faith - it keeps me going when times get tough and provides me with someone to thank when things go well.
I could go on and on, but I am confident I hit the major bullet points.
Wishing you a life rich with blessings to count this Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Virtual Vacation
As mentioned previously on this blog, I traded my vacation this year for home improvements. Sometimes they don't both fit in the budget, and the aforementioned home improvements were also going to consume time away from work.
I like to use my vacation time to explore new places, see new things, meet new people. Often, these new experiences spark new story ideas for me. Some of them have been usable, others have been duds. One of my favorite vacations was to Bryce Canyon in Utah. The hoodoos had my brain working even before I saw them live and in person. However, the story that came out of that wasn't very compelling. One of the books that will never see the light of day, my friends.
In absence of a seeing a new place this year I have promised myself to do some volunteer work. It isn't necessarily a "new" experience, but it is a new location and will entail meeting new people. I will be scheduling vacation time (waiting for the new grandbaby to be born before I take additional time) during which I hope to make some headway on Cinda's story. Got a good start on it - need some additional research to flesh some parts out. Some of that will involve additional volunteer work which I will do during my time off.
In the meantime . . . I've seen some beautiful pictures of a location I visited last summer (featured in Heart for Rent) and so I am taking a virtual vacation - reliving one of my favorite destinations through the magic of photography. Aix-en-Provence. The picture below is the Cours Mirabeau. We also visited a fabulous outdoor French market where they sold freshly ground spices, along with the usual fare of fresh produce and hand made goods. While we were there, they were running the Iron Man (hence, the rental truck on the street). I took this picture, but unfortunately, we don't have many pictures from Aix. DH lost his memory card from that day. He is a very methodical man and photography is one of his hobbies, so losing those pictures was nothing short of a catastrophe! Fortunately, more pictures can be found at the Aix Facebook page La Belle Aix. Or their internet page. They have a Christmas celebration, with lights hanging from these trees. Looks like a fabulous place to be right now, and until I can visit again, I'm grateful for fabulous photographers who are willing to share their pictures.
I like to use my vacation time to explore new places, see new things, meet new people. Often, these new experiences spark new story ideas for me. Some of them have been usable, others have been duds. One of my favorite vacations was to Bryce Canyon in Utah. The hoodoos had my brain working even before I saw them live and in person. However, the story that came out of that wasn't very compelling. One of the books that will never see the light of day, my friends.
In absence of a seeing a new place this year I have promised myself to do some volunteer work. It isn't necessarily a "new" experience, but it is a new location and will entail meeting new people. I will be scheduling vacation time (waiting for the new grandbaby to be born before I take additional time) during which I hope to make some headway on Cinda's story. Got a good start on it - need some additional research to flesh some parts out. Some of that will involve additional volunteer work which I will do during my time off.
In the meantime . . . I've seen some beautiful pictures of a location I visited last summer (featured in Heart for Rent) and so I am taking a virtual vacation - reliving one of my favorite destinations through the magic of photography. Aix-en-Provence. The picture below is the Cours Mirabeau. We also visited a fabulous outdoor French market where they sold freshly ground spices, along with the usual fare of fresh produce and hand made goods. While we were there, they were running the Iron Man (hence, the rental truck on the street). I took this picture, but unfortunately, we don't have many pictures from Aix. DH lost his memory card from that day. He is a very methodical man and photography is one of his hobbies, so losing those pictures was nothing short of a catastrophe! Fortunately, more pictures can be found at the Aix Facebook page La Belle Aix. Or their internet page. They have a Christmas celebration, with lights hanging from these trees. Looks like a fabulous place to be right now, and until I can visit again, I'm grateful for fabulous photographers who are willing to share their pictures.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Wheat and Chaff - 6 Rules to Consider Before you Choose Independent Publishing
I recently read an interesting stream on indie publishing questions. The comments ranged from "all indie books are terrible" to "there are some real gems out there." The discussion raised some very interesting points, both pro and con.
Some noteable indie books - Fifty Shades of Grey. I've not read the book, but I understand the writing is subpar, although the topic obviously has garnered a ton of interest. Barbara Freethy is a successful indie author. JA Konrath started out with a publisher, but switched to indie when the publisher dropped him.
Konrath is an example I hold up as a model for success. He knows how to market. He's a good schmoozer, shows up for the conferences, stops in the bookstores, writes articles, all the leg work that shores him up. He's a dynamic personality, which works to his benefit.
On the other side of that coin, I have had the misfortune to read some extremely poorly edited novels. The stories might be strong, but without the hard work that goes into them, they are destined to fail. I had one good friend who self-published, and I was anxious to read it -- as she is a friend. At the end of the book, she credited the efforts of her editor. I can only guess that her editor was her best friend and not someone with any qualifications. The typographical errors alone were horrendous. The story was there. It was a good story, but it was soooooo hard to read. It is impossible to write a good review for a book that is poorly written, no matter how good the story might be.
So, as an author, how do you decide if you want to publish independently?
1. Put the work in! Know the rules. Yes, they can occasionally be broken, but you can't throw them out the window in the interest of being unique. It just makes you look like you don't know what you're doing.
2. Know the mechanics. Quick personal story. When my kids got to high school, they were both in advanced English. They went to a private elementary school, public high school. The difference? In the private school, they diagrammed sentences. They knew what a noun and a verb were and how they fit together. The public school kids had no idea. (This is not a reflection on education, folks, just a statement of fact in my particular geographical region.)
3. Know how to spell. Yes, spell check can find your misspelled words, but there are many instances of correctly spelled words used incorrectly. Pulling a recent reference -- "They knew all the sorted details." Yes, it's spelled correctly. However, the correct phrase would be "They knew all the sordid details."
4. Show. Don't Tell. This is the most common mistake with new writers. Go ahead. "Tell" the story for your first draft. But then you have to go back and "Show" everything you've left out. People want to feel the story. See the story. They don't want you to tell them it was a nice day. They want to see the sun is shining, feel the warmth on their skin. They want to become part of the story, not have you dictate to them what you want them to know.
5. Dialog. Read it out loud. Rules of proper grammar slide on this one. People don't speak perfectly. People speak in contractions (I'll, you'll, we've). Dialog has to sound natural, not forced, and people rarely state the obvious. "Jane, I am going to the store." "Okay, John. I will see you later." "Okay, Jane. Goodbye." Include dialog tags and/or action beats to prevent "talking heads."
6. Call in the pros when you need to. Paying a professional editor to help you can make all the difference between success and failure. I'm a copyeditor at the day job. I proofread for a living. So I should know what I'm doing when I proofread my own work, right? WRONG. I know what it's supposed to say. I can see the story in my head. That doesn't always translate to paper. Even I miss some of the basics. Crutch words that are overused (like just or that). "Flowery" dialog tags that aren't manners of speech (I was famous for that when I started out). Example, "Please, stop!" she emoted. Honestly. Do you walk up to your friends and say "So I was talking to Susie, and she emoted that she didn't like that guy." Bottom line. Editors have gone to school for this. They know what they're talking about. One of the best investments you'll ever make (assuming you get a competent one, but that's a story for another day).
As a reader, how can you tell the wheat from the chaff? Unfortunately there is no foolproof way, and this is where reviews come in handy. Read the review or, if the story grabs you without having been reviewed, write a review so you can share your experience with the next reader. These days, many reviewers will add a comment that the story was "well written," or "in need of a good editor." And when you find an indie author that you like, spread the word!
Some noteable indie books - Fifty Shades of Grey. I've not read the book, but I understand the writing is subpar, although the topic obviously has garnered a ton of interest. Barbara Freethy is a successful indie author. JA Konrath started out with a publisher, but switched to indie when the publisher dropped him.
Konrath is an example I hold up as a model for success. He knows how to market. He's a good schmoozer, shows up for the conferences, stops in the bookstores, writes articles, all the leg work that shores him up. He's a dynamic personality, which works to his benefit.
On the other side of that coin, I have had the misfortune to read some extremely poorly edited novels. The stories might be strong, but without the hard work that goes into them, they are destined to fail. I had one good friend who self-published, and I was anxious to read it -- as she is a friend. At the end of the book, she credited the efforts of her editor. I can only guess that her editor was her best friend and not someone with any qualifications. The typographical errors alone were horrendous. The story was there. It was a good story, but it was soooooo hard to read. It is impossible to write a good review for a book that is poorly written, no matter how good the story might be.
So, as an author, how do you decide if you want to publish independently?
1. Put the work in! Know the rules. Yes, they can occasionally be broken, but you can't throw them out the window in the interest of being unique. It just makes you look like you don't know what you're doing.
2. Know the mechanics. Quick personal story. When my kids got to high school, they were both in advanced English. They went to a private elementary school, public high school. The difference? In the private school, they diagrammed sentences. They knew what a noun and a verb were and how they fit together. The public school kids had no idea. (This is not a reflection on education, folks, just a statement of fact in my particular geographical region.)
3. Know how to spell. Yes, spell check can find your misspelled words, but there are many instances of correctly spelled words used incorrectly. Pulling a recent reference -- "They knew all the sorted details." Yes, it's spelled correctly. However, the correct phrase would be "They knew all the sordid details."
4. Show. Don't Tell. This is the most common mistake with new writers. Go ahead. "Tell" the story for your first draft. But then you have to go back and "Show" everything you've left out. People want to feel the story. See the story. They don't want you to tell them it was a nice day. They want to see the sun is shining, feel the warmth on their skin. They want to become part of the story, not have you dictate to them what you want them to know.
5. Dialog. Read it out loud. Rules of proper grammar slide on this one. People don't speak perfectly. People speak in contractions (I'll, you'll, we've). Dialog has to sound natural, not forced, and people rarely state the obvious. "Jane, I am going to the store." "Okay, John. I will see you later." "Okay, Jane. Goodbye." Include dialog tags and/or action beats to prevent "talking heads."
6. Call in the pros when you need to. Paying a professional editor to help you can make all the difference between success and failure. I'm a copyeditor at the day job. I proofread for a living. So I should know what I'm doing when I proofread my own work, right? WRONG. I know what it's supposed to say. I can see the story in my head. That doesn't always translate to paper. Even I miss some of the basics. Crutch words that are overused (like just or that). "Flowery" dialog tags that aren't manners of speech (I was famous for that when I started out). Example, "Please, stop!" she emoted. Honestly. Do you walk up to your friends and say "So I was talking to Susie, and she emoted that she didn't like that guy." Bottom line. Editors have gone to school for this. They know what they're talking about. One of the best investments you'll ever make (assuming you get a competent one, but that's a story for another day).
As a reader, how can you tell the wheat from the chaff? Unfortunately there is no foolproof way, and this is where reviews come in handy. Read the review or, if the story grabs you without having been reviewed, write a review so you can share your experience with the next reader. These days, many reviewers will add a comment that the story was "well written," or "in need of a good editor." And when you find an indie author that you like, spread the word!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The Hump Day Camel
Speaking of which, I assume everyone knows by now that the new novel was released on Monday? Have you purchased your copy yet?
Okay, back on topic. Along with the wealth of "good" commercials, there are also many memorable "bad" commercials. Does anyone really like the Burger King king with the plastic head? Isn't he kind of creepy? If I was to look into an advertising company to promote my business, that would probably not even make the list. But the Geico guys, they got it right. Some of those commercials are better than others (and again, this is my humble opinion), but some of them are pretty funny. One more I'll add to my list of favorite adverts, the State Farm guys, in particular (and this is probably because I'm a cat lover), the "helpful hints" one where the last vignette is kitty litter on a snowy road for traction -- and along come dozens of kitties.
This is all mindless wandering, mind you. Ads are generally more annoying than anything else, which is why when they find a way to entertain you in the process, I find them noteworthy. And my poor, overused Hump Day Camel is probably annoying more people than it's entertaining now.
For authors, advertising is most effective via word of mouth. So for right now, I'm standing over here, jumping up and down, waving my arms hawking my books, and hoping that those of you who have enjoyed them will tell all your friends. Yes, I do more formal advertising as well, and the community of writers bands together to help one another.
So "Release Day" is past (and I'll put that camel to bed for now), but it is still Release Week! Long and Short Reviews is running a contest for one free (ebook) copy of my book at their site, and Goodreads is running a contest to win one of five free copies to celebrate (see the link to the right). Enter to win, tell your friends. Buy a copy. Support independent authors! And after you've read Heart For Rent, I hope you'll leave a review on your favorite book site.
Monday, November 4, 2013
It's Release Day!
Heart for Rent, with an Option is now available!
Take this opportunity to enter to win an ebook version at Long and Short Reviews, or enter the Goodreads giveaway to win a paperback version (listed on the right).
Support your favorite struggling authors - buy the book, and tell all your friends!
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